e literally gave his life for love. A third century priest was executed by the Romans for marrying couples despite a prohibition on marriage. Since the death of St. Valentine, the heart has been the symbol that has marked the calendar day of the 14th of February.

Flowers, jewelry and chocolate are on the top of the list for this special day’s presents, but perhaps the best gift that holds the greatest meaning of how one person feels about another is the Valentine card.

From Hallmark to handmade

In 1978, she got on her bicycle and pedaled down the road and right into his heart.

“He came by and stopped his motorcycle just to say hi,” said Sue Barthol of Kunkletown. “Five years later we were married.”

Before the wedding day arrived, Dan Barthol found himself in a dilemma. It was Valentine’s Day, and he had to get his fiancée something so he hurried to a flower shop.

“Most of the flowers were gone, but I was able to get some that were about half dead,” he said. Dan went home and wrote these words on a card.

“I would have bought you something nicer, but there is nothing nicer than you.”

Every year, Dan gets a Valentine card for Sue and in this, their 40th year of marriage, he will sit outside in the driveway and write her another love note and then place it on the kitchen table the night before where she will expect to find it just like she has ever since he promised to love her for the rest of her life.

“Dan is a man of few words and he can be forgetful, too,” she said with a laugh, “If he forgets to buy me a Hallmark card, I’ll give him a piece of paper and tell him to make me one.”

And he has done that for many years. One in particular says, “Roses are red. Violets are blue, I don’t know what I would do without you.”

Dan has shown Sue his sense of humor, too. On the bottom of a card he had made, he wrote the word, “late” because he had forgotten when Valentine’s Day came that year. There was another one when he wrote, “Life has been full of potholes and you have smoothed over the bumps and holes for me, but try not to grab onto the dashboard too much.”

Sue likes to reread some of the more than 100 cards her husband has written to her through the years. “I look forward to getting the next one he gives me this year.”

Their busy lives can get in the way of important days to remember. Sue works in the office and Dan works on repairing cars for their D+S Auto Sales business, but no matter, the moment will come when Dan will write his love notes on another Valentine card and all will stay as good as it gets in the Barthol house.

From hearts to hands

In 1982, Charlene Bergstresser of Slatington began her first year at then West Chester State College outside of Philadelphia. Living away from home for the first time can be very stressful for a freshman student.

Charlene left her family in Allentown for the 90-minute drive to West Chester, which to her might have felt like she was going to another planet. What made matters worse was that she was leaving her friends, and her roommate already had some of her friends at the college.

“I was very close to my grandparents while I was growing up,” she said. “My grandmother, my mother’s mother, took it upon herself to make sure I never lost the connection I had with her back home. She would write letters to me about her every day events and on Valentine’s Day, she would send me paper red hearts and I would hang them in my dorm room.”

Charlene’s grandmother was a seamstress and she would attach thread to each heart to make them easy for hanging.

“She would write letters on the back of place mats or post cards, just about anything she could find,” Bergstresser said. “My parents wrote letters to me, too, while I was away at college. My mother and father wrote theirs separately. I had a real sense of connection to my family and that certainly helped me get through my education.”

Her friends from back home also wrote letters to her. Charlene, who was a nurse for 30 years, has kept them all, more than 200 letters and paper hearts combined. She has attained a sincere affection for sending and receiving cards for every occasion.

“I like to go into the store and pick out cards to send,” she said. “I think it’s extra special when people take the time to write to someone. It can make a person feel less isolated, like it did for me when I was in college.”

In a world where cellphone communication can be easily deleted, a homemade card or a handmade paper heart send meaningful messages of love on Valentine’s Day or on any day, and for Sue and Dan Barthol and Charlene Bergstresser, these special love tokens leave them with unforgettable memories.